Stay tuned to the Chronicle and this blog for more as we get closer to Thursday's season opener and meet these young men who would be Cubs. Am looking forward to keeping this dialogue with readers as we, like the Cougars, anticipate a surge in interest given the club's new alignment with the North Siders.

As for me, this is my fifth season covering games at what's now known as Fifth Third Bank Ballpark. I'm all but desensitized to the DH after covering the Royals as an MLB.com intern in 2006, my last summer of college.

I grew up a Cardinals fan in St. Louis, but you shouldn't hold that against me. I may or may not have rooted against the Cards in the '06 World Series, and may or may not have bought a Cubs hat while visiting Great Lakes, Ill., for my brother's Naval boot camp graduation in 1998.